


Warm Company

by madlysanecatlady



Series: Gladnis Week Works [9]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Confession, Fluff, Gladnis, Gladnis Week 2018, Hurt, Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-26
Updated: 2018-08-26
Packaged: 2019-07-02 15:17:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,777
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15799185
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/madlysanecatlady/pseuds/madlysanecatlady
Summary: A dangerous hunt goes bad when it's Ignis' turn to pull Noctis out of harm's way, but isn't quite fast enough to pull himself out too. Gladio can't stand to see him hurt, and vows to never let it happen again.





	Warm Company

**Author's Note:**

> **Prompt:** The one with a hunt that goes bad. “This wasn’t your job; it should have been mine!”

Necromancers were, from top to bottom, some of the most vile, _awful_ creatures Ignis had ever tried to talk Noctis out of accepting a bounty for. First and foremost, they were difficult to even _look_ at, everything about them just instilled this feeling of absolute _wrongness_ from the stale cloak flowing around the horrific twist of daemon flesh beneath to the horrific way they floated through the air towards them. Really, Ignis thought, the only thing worse than a necromancer was three of them, three of them that crept menacingly through the darkness towards them.

‘Disgusting,’ Noctis wrinkled his nose at the stale smell that filled the air around them. ‘Why’d you let me pick this one, Specs?’

‘Don’t you even dare,’ Ignis huffed. ‘I’m perfectly happy to turn around right now and drop this ridiculous hunt.’

‘Too late now, they saw us,’ Prompto gulped. ‘Alright guys, let’s do this.’

‘Look alive, guys, these guys sure aren’t,’ Gladio offered before running in after Noctis, who was already a little quicker on jumping in with a warp strike than Ignis would like. He wished the idiot would take some time to think, to assess his options, before simply jumping in. But of course, that was like wishing coeurls would have stripes, so Ignis simply resigned himself to following into the fray, ensuring to keep an eye on Noctis to see to it that he didn’t try and take on more than he was capable of handle all at once.

Things went, well, not exactly well, but certainly better than Ignis had expected. Necromancers were infamous for a particularly nasty ability to inflict instant death. The name of the spell was a bit of a misnomer, as it did not exactly _kill_ the victim instantly, but it certainly made it a great deal easier to finish the job. The victim would simply become largely unresponsive, feeling the life draining away from them, and if a phoenix down were not administered very quickly, the victim would surely die of the symptoms, provided the necromancer’s minions didn’t finish them off first. 

That was, of course, one of the things Ignis was looking out for closely. No one had studied nearly as much as he had, and, apart from Gladio, Ignis couldn’t see the others really having any interest in studying the abilities of the variety of daemons that existed outside of the Crown City. He was pleased to note that these particular daemons appeared to be much more interested in summoning their little skeleton minions and looking generally menacing than in inflicting any actual damage.

They dispatched two of the necromancers by grinding away at their defences before the final one decided it was time to become truly menacing. Ignis saw the signs of it gearing up to cast its most terrible affliction curse in Noctis’ direction and reacted quickly, reaching out to grab Noctis’ collar to tug him out of the way but was slightly too slow to get out of the way himself, taking the curse full in the chest, feeling the constricting effects beginning immediately. The last thing he saw before everything went black around him was Gladio rushing towards him, a phoenix down already in hand.

 

* * *

 

The world blurred back into his sight after what felt like seconds, but was apparently several hours later, as he could see he was in a hotel room, the sun peeking through the drawn curtains. Blearily, he sat up, looking around.

‘Woah, Iggy, don’t push it,’ Gladio was at his side in an instant, reaching out to try and push him back down onto the bed. ‘How’re you feeling?’

‘Other than _very_ thirsty, I think I’m alright,’ Ignis took careful inventory, giving a dry swallow. Gladio handed him a bottle of water that he drank down greedily. ‘Thank you.’

Gladio made an annoyed noise, and Ignis turned to see him all but glaring at him. Ignis had a feeling he knew what was next: a rather long and possibly a little bit patronising lecture about how it wasn’t Ignis’ job to pull Noctis out of harm’s way, regardless of the fact that Gladio can’t possibly be everywhere at all times when Noctis is busy warping around a battlefield. Ignis sighed, ready for it, and hoping to head it off.

‘Gladio, please, I really don’t have the desire to go through this with you right now. I was next to Noct, you were not. It’s simple.’

‘It’s not, though,’ Gladio shook his head, looking down. His next words were barely a whisper, filled with emotion that Ignis had never heard in his friend’s voice before. ‘You could’ve _died_ , Iggy. You almost did. That wasn’t your job; it should have been mine! _I’m_ the one who’s supposed to put his life in between Noct and danger, not you!’

Ignis stared at Gladio, watching a tear escape a downcast amber eye. He reached out to wipe it with his thumb before forcing Gladio to look at him. ‘Gladio, please don’t cry.’

‘I can’t help it Iggy, I almost lost you,’ Gladio let another few tears fall. ‘I just… I don’t know what I’d do. I’d be so lost without you.’

Ignis reached out with his other hand to dry more tears, holding Gladio’s face between his hands. ‘Don’t you dare; Gladiolus Amicitia, you are the most capable and resourceful man I know. You’d be just fine without me.’

‘I wouldn’t,’ Gladio said, his voice breaking a little. ‘I need you. I need you more than I even knew until you were almost taken away from me. _Gods_ , Iggy, I can’t stand the thought of something happening to you, of you getting hurt, because I wasn’t there to do my job.’

‘Shh,’ Ignis moved an index finger to Gladio’s lips, feeling his eyes burning as he fought to hold back tears of his own, watching Gladio, the strongest man he had ever known, the man he had only seen cry twice in their lives, completely break down in front of him. He leaned over to wrap his arms around Gladio, pulling him into a gentle hug. ‘Gladio, it’s over. What’s done is done, and we are all fine.’

Gladio tugged Ignis to his chest, burying his face in the crook of his neck. Ignis could feel some tears hitting his skin as Gladio fought to calm himself so he could speak. ‘It was so close to being different. I’m never letting that happen again. Those little idiots are gonna learn to be more careful, and I’m not gonna let you ever need to do anything like that ever again.’

‘Oh Gladio,’ Ignis pulled away a little to look at his friend again. He smiled, taking his face in both hands again and drying his tears with his thumbs. ‘You’ve always been so protective, even when we were children playing more than training together three nights a week. I’ve always loved that about you. Don’t turn that into an annoyance. You can’t make it your personal mission to protect all of us from _everything_. Our lives are a bit messier than that. You’ll only make things messier if you try to control everything. I’ve learned that one, far later than I should have, but you helped teach me that. Do take your own advice.’

‘Nothing’s rational when it comes to you,’ Gladio shook his head, reaching up to keep Ignis’ hand firmly in place on his cheek. ‘I can’t hide it anymore. I can’t bear to keep it in. I get it if you don’t feel the same way, you can yell at me all you want, but my biggest regret, if anything happens to either of us, would be never telling you that I love you.’

Ignis smiled again. ‘I know you do, you loveable, perfect idiot. You didn’t think you were subtle, did you? I was wondering when you would be ready to tell me. It’s been a bit since you’ve finally admitted it to yourself.’

‘Always ten steps ahead of everyone else, aren’t you?’ Gladio snorted. ‘So you don’t hate me for this.’

Ignis tried really hard to keep from rolling his eyes at that, but failed miserably. ‘No you wonderful oaf, of course I don’t hate you.’ He leaned forward, pressing his lips gently to Gladio’s for a moment before pulling back to look at him closely. ‘I think I’ve loved you for almost as long as I’ve known you. It’s really about time you caught up. Of course, you were always the strong one, I was the much faster one.’

Gladio leaned down to kiss him again, less briefly, but still pulled away far sooner than he wanted to. He leaned their foreheads together, closing his eyes and breathing in the relief that Ignis was fine.

‘I’m alright,’ Ignis whispered. ‘It’s alright, Gladio.’

‘You’re okay,’ Gladio agreed, pulling back, this time taking Ignis’ face in between large hands and looking into emerald eyes, comforting himself in Ignis’ presence. He moved Ignis’ hair out of the way and leaned down to press a kiss to the patch of pale forehead he’d exposed. ‘You think you could get some more sleep, or are you gonna throw a tantrum till I let you get up?’

Ignis smiled. ‘I could be persuaded to remain in bed, provided I have some warm company with me. It’s a bit chilly in here.’

Gladio laughed, nudging Ignis to move aside so he could climb into bed next to him, smiling ear to ear when Ignis rolled over to his side, tossing an arm over his midsection and resting his head on Gladio’s shoulder. Gladio brought an arm up around Ignis, holding him in place. ‘You know, we’ve shared a lot of beds on this trip, and I really wanted to do this for most of those times.’

‘Hmm, what stopped you?’

‘Doubt,’ Gladio was pleased to note Ignis’ eyes had fluttered closed. ‘You’re way outta my league, you’d probably beat me over the head with some perfectly reasonable logic about our duty, oh yeah, and that pesky thing about how I’ve always just sorta assumed I was straight.’

Ignis snorted. ‘Slow on the uptake sometimes, aren’t you?’

‘You probably saw right through me and knew before I did,’ Gladio laughed with him.

‘That’s a distinct possibility,’ Ignis’ voice was quieting as he came closer and closer to drifting off to sleep. ‘Mm, you’re quite warm. This is nice.’

‘Mm, yeah,’ Gladio agreed. ‘I guess you could say I’m the warm company you needed.’

‘Warm company indeed,’ was the whisper of the last words before Ignis succumbed to sleep, safe in the arms of warm company who loved him.


End file.
